Seeing how federal authorities have had no problem cracking down on pot shops in California, this could be a bad omen for L.A. weed stores, which have all been outlawed under city decree:

The Council asked for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the L.A. County District Attorney to come up with a strategy to help it rid L.A. of pot shops.

The ban is being challenged in court and a couple of voter referendum drives, including one by a group called Committee to Protect Patients and Neighborhoods, are gathering signatures in an attempt to overturn the ban at the ballot box.

themadpothead / Flickr

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City Councilman Bernard Parks, who has in the past defended the drug use at raves as comparable to the imbibing seen at rock shows and sporting events, was gung ho about shutting the cannabis retailers down.

He said he wants police and outside agencies that are helping to create a strategy and get going:

I wouldn't ask them to slow anything down ... I would like them to move forward on that strategy.

Dennis Romero is an L.A. Weekly staff writer. He formerly worked at the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Los Angeles Times, where he participated in Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the L.A. riots. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone online, the Guardian and, as a young stringer, the New York Times.